Week Four: TrackStar Research Projects

I like that the following projects walk students through the research. It takes them step-by-step in how to validate the creditability of a website and its information. It allows students to learn information literacy skills without overwhelming them and making them feel lost on how to answer the research question.

Is No Child Left Behind Working?

This lesson promotes information literacy because it discusses informational biases, national results, and alternative opinions on the controversial research question of whether No Child Left Behind is working. Instead of just answering the question with one source, this lesson goes through various sources so that students can make an informed decision.

Drawing Conclusion on Bilingual Education 

This lesson promotes information literacy because students have to gather raw data and analyze it. They not only analyze the data, but the websites to make sure they are valid and reliable. It also discusses the creditability of graphs and charts that display information. These tools can be used to display biased opinions, just as words can on websites.

Is Time Travel Possible?

 

This lesson promotes information literacy because it gives links to various digital media tools, in order for students to learn the answer to the research question about time travel. Websites, videos, and Google are given to the students while questions are presented about the reliability of each source. Students aren’t given the answer to whether sources are valid; however, they are led to the right answer.